I’m trying to figure it out, I’m guessing, this one pair of boots must be near ten years old now. They are handmade Lucchese “Burnt Cherry” ostrich-skin for the lowers, uppers are just fancy tooled cow-hide. Wore through the soles the first time, overseas. Wore through the soles again here in town. Just as a point, I’ve had those boots resoled at the factory maybe two or three times. Then I started using local stores, had another three soles put on that way.
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[/style]For years, one of the hotels we worked in El Paso, was right around the corner from the Lucchese Factory Outlet store. Think I bought a pair of boots there once. Not sure. So I always assumed the Lucchese factory was in El Paso – me not being one to get concerned with checking facts.
After the factory repair returned my boots the last time – said they could no longer fix that pair, I turned to a local guy. First, a legendary boot-maker, then a highly recommended place, and finally, about a year ago, a small rip appeared along the outer portion of the skin, just above where it meets the sole. I had another local boot-fixer do a fabulous job of fixing the boots, plus new soles and heels.
Although he’s an Austin native, I can still recall the cobbler looking at the boots, “Good boots. Hand-made. Huh,” with a Spanish lilt. But the boot-repair man? He knew his stuff.
I’m in a quandary, as there’s now another tiny tear, two days ago, when I noticed it, the tear was only a few centimeters long, but it’s grown, in the last day. I’m one who’s always in favor of repair and recycle, and I’d hate to part with a pair of boots that have so much history, but there’s only so much (ab)use the equipment can take. When do I abandon the hope of repair, and go for the replacements? And what do I do with the old boots, anyway? There’s a tremendous emotional investment in that one pair. They went from dress shoes to work shoes after about the third or fourth resole.
The guy at the Golden Slipper did such a good job last time, I’m sure these could be fixed up easily. But I’m not sure, should I just keep fixing and patching when a whole new pair might be a better idea? I’m kind of liking the old pair, already broke in, we’ve got a good history, and so on.
The Golden Slipper is located on the “Tex-Mex-istan mile,” along South First Street (SoFi?), conveniently sandwiched between uber-trendy Lower Congress (LoCo?) and soon-to-be-trendy South Lamar (SoLa?).
Local media:
Local media tends to ignore me, so I tend to ignore them. Way it goes, status quo. I was working up another web graphic, possibly a splash page, with one of my favorite images, the Stardust Motel – it’s just a sign, last time I was there, and then I noticed the local weekly alternative paper, which, to me, seems pretty much mainstream. The front page banner and headline was about Marfa. Which coincides with a conversation last week, at an Xmas party, about Marfa and its environs. And how it’s become a town for the trendy hipsters.
I love the vistas between towns, like Ft. Davis and Marfa, Very old mountains, worn down by eons of time, and geography is amazing since it’s all basically high desert. So seeing the town listed as a new cool destination is bothersome. Also means I have to find a new image to play with, like to replace the Marfa Lights badge, and the Stardust Motel motif.
I mean, if Tuesday is the new Friday, and black is the new black, I’m wondering, is Marfa the new Austin?
